A cracking return of the Premier League we witnessed which was headlined by 2 derbies between the biggest Premier League. Arsenal beat Spurs 3-1 in the North London Derby at the Emirates, while on Sunday Manchester City tore apart Manchester United 6-3. Watch highlights of match recaps now.
On Saturday Arsenal welcomed fierce North London rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, in a bid to retain their top spot placement. The Gunners kicked off the weekend’s return to league football with a commanding display over their rivals as we saw the first goal in the first match of the weekend of derbies scored by Arsenal’s Thomas Partey just 20 minutes after kickoff, a first time rocket into the top right corner. England captain Harry Kane levelled matters on 31 minutes through a penalty they won after a foul by Gabriel on Richarlison. Just 4 minutes into the 2nd half, Brazilian striker Gabriel Jesus was able to bundle in his 5th goal of the match. Matters got worse for Spurs in the 62nd minute when Emerson Royale was shown his marching orders for a foul deemed to be dangerous on Gabriel Martinelli. Arsenal’s dominance was resounding as they were able to round up the game with a 3rd goal from Granit Xhaka in the 67th minute, and Arsenal saw off the game with a total of 22 shots (9 on target) to Spurs’ 7 (only 3 on target).
Another derby match awaited the football fans on Sunday when the two teams from Manchester locked horns in the Manchester Derby. It was a huge spectacle as we saw some very excellent performances from City’s star boys, Phil Foden managing to get a hattrick (8′, 44′, 73′), after star striker Erling Haaland completed his hattrick (34′, 37′, 64′). We witnessed 2 hattricks in a single Premier League game (something very unusual), and Haaland was able to conjure up 2 assists on top of his brilliant hattrick. Manchester United were off the pace from the very first whistle but were able to pull back 3 goals themselves, through Antony (56′) and 2 goals from Anthony Martial (84′, 91′ pen). Through all the drama another noticeable factor was the omission of Cristiano Ronaldo in the entire 90 minutes of the Manchester Derby, causing fans to question United’s determination. Watch the match recap now.
Haaland has now scored 3 consecutive hattricks in the Premier League, and has shattered Michael Owen’s record of being the fastest man to score 3 Premier League hattricks after he did it just after 8 games (previous record was 48 games). As well as having the same number of Premier League hattricks as Cristiano Ronaldo just after 8 games. The Norwegian forward now has 14 Premier League goals after just 8 games, and he looks well on course to bag the top scorer at this rate of his very lethal goal scoring form.
Arsenal are 1st on the standings still, with 21 points, while Manchester City closely trail in 2nd with 20 points. Tottenham are 3rd with 17 points while Manchester United sit on 6th with 12 points. Following their 3-3 draw against Brighton Liverpool are now 9th with only 10 points from 7 games, and after his first win as Chelsea head coach, Graham Potter’s side make up the top 5 with 13 points from 7 games.
